Glendale man to plead guilty in 'Sextortion' case

LOS ANGELES - A Glendale man accused of hacking into hundreds of Facebook, Skype and email accounts, then coercing women to strip for him, has agreed to plead guilty next week to federal computer fraud charges, court papers show.

Karen "Gary" Kazaryan, 27, admitted in a signed plea agreement that he hacked his way into online accounts, using personal information and nude or semi-nude photos of his victims to coerce female victims to show him their bodies, often over Skype.

Kazaryan also hacked into accounts and changed passwords, locking victims out of their own online accounts, prosecutors said.

Once he controlled the accounts, he searched emails or other files for naked or semi-naked pictures of the victims, as well as other information, such as passwords and the names of their friends, according to court papers.

Using that information, Kazaryan posed online as women, sent instant messages to their friends, and persuaded the friends to remove their clothing so that he could seen them and take pictures of them, federal prosecutors said.

When his demands were refused, Kazaryan allegedly posted nude photos of some victims on their Facebook pages.

Kazaryan is scheduled to plead guilty to the charges July 10 before U.S. District Judge George H. King.

In exchange for his plea to computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft charges, prosecutors in Los Angeles agreed to recommend a prison sentence of no more than six years, papers show.

Kazaryan was arrested in January by FBI agents based on a 30-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Investigators estimate that Kazaryan victimized more than 350 women, but not all have been identified.

About 3,000 images of nude or semi-nude women -- some of which were taken from their online accounts and some of which Kazaryan created via Skype -- were found on Kazaryan's computer, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.